THE highly anticipated video game Fallout 3 has been approved for release in Australia after portrayals of drug use were edited out of the game.

Fallout 3 was refused classification last month for realistically portraying drugs as an "incentive or reward" for players, which meant that it did not quality for a rating of MA15+.

Because there is no R18+ rating for video games in Australia, any title that exceeds MA15+ must be refused classification and denied release.

Fallout 3, developed by Bethesda Softworks, is set two centuries in the future and follows a survivor who ventures out of a fallout shelter into a post-apocalyptic world.

In the game players are able to use "chems" and real-world drugs such as morphine to alter their character's abilities.

After the game was denied a rating by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, Bethesda resubmitted an edited version of Fallout 3 for release in Australia.

That version has now been approved for local release with an MA15+ rating.

Neither the game's developer or local distributor, Red Ant, would reveal exactly what was removed from the game.

However the classifications board told gaming website Kotaku that the incentives and rewards for drug use had been removed.